Palace due for a long wait before beating Arsenal again

Continuing our review of the stats from games this season, Palace have 38 yellow cards this season (Arsenal have 27) and neither club has had a player sent off yet.

But they are third in the table when it comes to tackles – they undertake 18.1 tackles per game – only Chelsea and Huddersfield get more tackles in. (Arsenal are 16.2 per game).

Where they do work hard is on interceptions – they make 13.9 per game, and only one team does more – which is Everton. Which overall suggests that working on interceptions is not necessarily the best game plan.

Curiously both sides are equal when it comes to fouls per game – 10.9. The worst offender in the league is Everton, followed by Watford, West Brom and Manchester United. What they don’t do is go in for a game of catching the opposition off side – on average it only happens 1.5 times per game – the third lowest in the league.

However they do go down for fouls a lot – Palace have got more fouls recorded against them than any other team except West Ham and Bournemouth.

Anyway, since we have two long term managers on show today, I thought it might be interesting to do a comparison between Roy Hodgson and Arsène Wenger in terms of what they have achieved. These figures come from Wikipedia.

First Roy Hodgson

Team

From

To

Record

P

W

D

L

Win %

Bristol City

3 January 1982

30 April 1982

21

3

5

13

14.3

Malmö

14 April 1985

15 November 1989

165

98

38

29

59.4

Blackburn Rov

1 June 1997

21 November 1998

63

22

18

23

34.9

Udinese

21 June 2001

10 December 2001

17

7

5

5

41.2

Viking

11 July 2004

20 December 2005

50

23

11

16

46.0

Fulham

30 December 2007

1 July 2010

128

50

32

46

39.1

Liverpool

1 July 2010

8 January 2011

31

13

9

9

41.9

West Bromwich

14 February 2011

14 May 2012

54

20

13

21

37.0

England

14 May 2012

27 June 2016

56

33

15

8

58.9

England U21

13 August 2013

13 August 2013

1

1

0

0

100.0

Crystal Palace

12 Sept 2017

Present

17

5

6

6

29.4

Total

602

275

152

175

45.7%

Arsène Wenger’s record is easier to get as he has managed many fewer clubs…

Team

From

To

Record

P

W

D

L

Win %

AS Nancy

1 July 1984

1 July 1987

114

33

30

51

28.9

AS Monaco

1 July 1987

17 Sept 1994

266

130

53

83

48.9

Grampus Eight

1 February 1995

30 Sept 1996

87

49

4

34

56.3

Arsenal

1 October 1996

Present

1,204

693

275

236

57.6

Total

1,671

905

362

404

54.2

As manager of England Hodgson got a win percentage of 58.9% – something he only beat during his spell at Malmo where he got a win percentage of 59.4%. However of a massively greater number of games Mr Wenger has got a win percentage of 57.6% at Arsenal. At Palace Hodgson’s record is 29.4%.

Mr Hodgson did get Fulham to be runners’ up in the Europa league in 2010, and is also Knight, First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland which sounds like fun. Mr Wenger is a member of the National Order of the Legion of Honour as established by Napoléon Bonaparte which sounds like less fun.

Crystal Palace have only beaten Arsenal four times across the years – the first match was back in 1934 in the FA Cup (we won 7-0) but league games didn’t start until 1969.

Palace won a league cup match against Arsenal in 1970 which was followed by six games without them winning another (they beat us again in 1979). Then there was a 13 match run in which they didn’t win a game until they won a league game in 1994.

Then there was a 14 match run until that awful 3-0 defeat in April this year. So if the pattern holds it should be about another six years or so before they beat us again, assuming that they don’t go down.

That 3-0 win of theirs in April was their biggest win against us, and just their third league win. Our last decent sized win was a 5-1 in 2005. Arsenal have only failed to score in two of their last 19 league games against Crystal Palace – the 0-3 loss last season and a 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park in October 1997.

So the teams…

Something along these lines if we want an attacking formation in the 4-3-3 mould…

Cech,

Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Maitland-Niles

Xhaka

Wilshere Iwobi

Ozil Lacazette Alexis

A variation on the use of the same players could be

Cech,

Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Maitland-Niles,

Wilshere Xhaka

Iwobi Ozil Alexis

Lacazette

If however we go over to three central defenders then I would expect Kolasinac to replace Maitland-Niles. Overall the rest of the squad who are available looks like this…

15 responses

your Hodgson list of teams coached is missing some. He did coach Neuchatel Xamax in Switzerland (1990-1992) and the swiss national team (1992 – 1995 / 6 wins, 3 draws, 7 losses) as well as another swiss team FC Grasshopers Zürich (1999-2000) as well as Inter Milan (1995 – 1997 / 37 wins, 11 draws, 13 losses) plus in Sweden Halmstad from 1976 to 1980).

So his stats are better I believe

Chris

28/12/2017

I believe the table on Wikipedia is missing some teams he coached that are mentionned higher up on the page.
well…wikipedia does not always have everything right it seems… !

Chris

28/12/2017

Just saw on TV that Pierce Morgan is pretty much taking credit for your prince Harry meeting his future wife.
I mean some guys just have absolutely no limits….and no class

Merlin

28/12/2017

Yet here you are!

Swapneel

28/12/2017

3-1 to Arsenal
Second half in progress

Menace

28/12/2017

How the TV bias looks for off side in an Arsenal goal but ignores Benteke when Palace score?

Swapneel

28/12/2017

2 goals by Sanchez in second half after Palace had pulled level

Swapneel

28/12/2017

Watching on Stream so not that smooth, but commentator is definitely biased regarding Sanchez saying he is playing great bcoz transfer window is upon us

Tony Attwood

28/12/2017

3-1 up and Lacazette taken off Coquelin on. Presumably Alexis centre forward.

Swapneel

28/12/2017

Now commentator has problems with Lacazatte been substituted, saying he should rebel.
Martin Tyler is fcuking b**tard

Swapneel

28/12/2017

3-2 to Arsenal final score

WalterBroeckx

28/12/2017

Match report is on line

Merlin

28/12/2017

Very impressed with Wilshere today. The ‘pretender’ (Loftus-Cheek) was withdrawn after pretty annonymous performance.I think Jack has just played himself back into the England side.

Menace

28/12/2017

The whole lot of the TV pundits need an education in honesty as do the officials.

Bellerin being held by his opponent within inches of the assstant who ignores the fouling & gives the throw in. What is the point of assistant if all you look at is who put the ball out? Select bunch of cheating bastards this PGMOL lot.